I went to ASOT at Ahoy Rotterdam this weekend, 2 nights. This was my first ASOT event, so I can't compare it to previous versions at The Jaarbeurs.
From an organizational point of view, this was one of the best events I have ever attended. Considering they were also hosting it in a brand new location, I just have to give credit to the entire team. Everything was absolutely flawless for me.
Many more festivals should really learn a thing or two about how to properly host an event so that people can just focus on enjoying the music, without worrying about anything else. To be fair, it's also true that especially big festivals usually have to deal with a much, much larger and more diverse (and sometimes a little more "problematic") audience than a bunch of middle-aged nerds
But still...
It wasn't sold out, better for me because it was busy but not super crowded so even on the bigger stages there was enough room to move and breathe. I just hope they didn't make a loss. I don't know the maximum capacity at Ahoy, I read that it should be a little less than at Jaarbeurs.
The venue itself is huge, 2 large stages, one medium-large and two smaller ones. I think the main stage was only completely full for about half an hour during Armin's set on Saturday. But even then there were 4 other stages available, so no problem.
Excellent audio quality, visuals and effects. Even on the smaller stages. I was truly impressed.
Overall the lineup was great, very diverse and lot ot great names. Of course a lot of techno influences, but you could always find something to your liking (unless you're only looking for something more underground or more "pure", in that case Luminosity is much better).
Armin's sets on the main stage were probably the only big disappointment, I didn't stay there long because when I heard him start his set on Friday with that awful cover of Infinity of his I was seriously embarrassed and immediately left to another stage. He really played as if he were at any other "normal" festival, whereas in the past, when he played in front of a trance audience, he at least tried to play some more trancy and less edm-cringe stuff. Pretty embarrassing to be honest. But the main stage was always full when he played, so...
His b2b sets were more interesting, though not quite trancy but more techno influenced stuff.
Solarstone did not disappoint, probably my favorite set.
Nice energetic stuff as we've come to expect from David Forbes.
I was looking forward to Ben Gold but he kept playing like 138-140bpm stuff at much higher bpm, I don't know why but the end effect wasn't that great and it ruined the set a bit for me.
I missed a few names I wanted to hear due to overlap and because I arrived a little later and left a little earlier, but overall I was satisfied. Again, in terms of music and choice Luminosity will always be the best, but this one takes second place, imho.